Class 12 Political Science Notes Chapter 5 Contemporary South Asia

Chapter 5 Contemporary South Asia

 

WHAT IS SOUTH ASIA?

The expression ‘South Asia’ usually includes the following countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The mighty Himalayas in the north and the vast Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the south, west and east respectively provide a natural insularity to the region, which is largely responsible for the linguistic, social and cultural distinctiveness of the subcontinent.

• After Pakistan framed its first constitution, General Ayub Khan took over the administration of the country and soon got himself elected.
• He had to give up office when there was popular dissatisfaction against his rule.
• This gave way to a military takeover once again under General Yahya Khan.
•  During Yahya’s military rule, Pakistan faced the Bangladesh crisis, and after a war with India in 1971, East Pakistan broke away to emerge as an independent country called Bangladesh.
• After this, an elected government under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came to power in Pakistan from 1971 to 1977.
•  The Bhutto government was removed by General Zia-ul-Haq in 1977. General Zia faced a pro-democracy movement from 1982 onwards and and an elected democratic government was established once again in 1988 under the leadership of Benazir Bhutto.
•  In the period that followed, Pakistani politics centred around the competition between her party, the Pakistan People’s Party, and the Muslim League. This phase of elective democracy lasted till 1999 when the army stepped in again and General Pervez Musharraf removed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In 2001, General Musharraf got himself elected as the President. Pakistan continued to be ruled by the army, though the army rulers have held some elections to give their rule a democratic image. Since 2008, democratically elected leaders have been ruling Pakistan.

• Several factors have contributed to Pakistan’s failure in building a stable democracy.

•  The social dominance of the military, clergy, and landowning aristocracy has led to the frequent overthrow of elected governments and the establishment of military government.
• Pakistan’s conflict with India has made the promilitary groups more powerful.
•  These groups have often said that political parties and democracy in Pakistan are flawed, that Pakistan’s security would be harmed by selfish-minded parties and chaotic democracy, and that the army’s stay in power is, therefore, justified.
•  While democracy has not been fully successful in Pakistan, there has been a strong pro-democracy sentiment in the country.
• Pakistan has a courageous and relatively free press and a strong human rights movement

DEMOCRACY IN BANGLADESH

• Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan from 1947 to 1971. It consisted of the partitioned areas of Bengal and Assam from British India. The people of this region resented the domination of western Pakistan and the imposition of the Urdu language.
• they began protests against the unfair treatment meted out to the Bengali culture and language.
• They also demanded fair representation in administration and a fair share in political power.
• Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led the popular struggle against West Pakistani domination.
•  He demanded autonomy for the eastern region.
• In the 1970 elections in the then Pakistan, the Awami League led by Sheikh Mujib won all the seats in East Pakistan and secured a majority in the proposed constituent assembly for the whole of Pakistan.
•  But the government dominated by the West Pakistani leadership refused to convene the assembly.
• Sheikh Mujib was arrested. Under the military rule of General Yahya Khan, the Pakistani army tried to suppress the mass movement of the Bengali people.
•  Thousands were killed by the Pakistan army.
• This led to a large scale migration into India, creating a huge refugee problem for India.
• The government of India supported the demand of the people of East Pakistan for their independence and helped them financially and militarily.
•  This resulted in a war between India and Pakistan in December 1971 that ended in the surrender of the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan and the formation of Bangladesh as an independent country.
• Bangladesh drafted its constitution declaring faith in secularism, democracy and socialism.
•  However, in 1975 Sheikh Mujib got the constitution amended to shift from the parliamentary to presidential form of government.
• He also abolished all parties except his own, the Awami League. This led to conflicts and tensions. In a dramatic and tragic development, he was assassinated in a military uprising in August 1975.
• The new military ruler, Ziaur Rahman, formed his own Bangladesh National Party and won elections in 1979.
•  He was assassinated and another military takeover followed under the leadership of Lt Gen H. M. Ershad.
• The people of Bangladesh soon rose in support of the demand for democracy. Students were in the forefront.
• The people of Bangladesh soon rose in support of the demand for democracy.
• Students were in the forefront. Ershad was forced to allow political activity on a limited scale.
•  He was later elected as President for five years. Mass public protests made Ershad step down in 1990.
•  Elections were held in 1991.
• Since then representative democracy based on multi-party elections has been working in Bangladesh.
• MONARCHY AND DEMOCRACY IN NEPAL

 

• Nepal was a Hindu kingdom in the past and then a constitutional monarchy in the modern period for many years
•  the king, with the help of the army, retained full control over the government and restricted the expansion of democracy in Nepal.
•  The king accepted the demand for a new democratic constitution in 1990, in the wake of a strong pro-democracy movement.
• However, democratic governments had a short and troubled career.
•  During the nineties, the Maoists of Nepal were successful in spreading their influence in many parts of Nepal.
• They believed in armed insurrection against the monarch and the ruling elite.
• This led to a violent conflict between the Maoist guerrillas and the armed forces of the king.
•  For some time, there was a triangular conflict among the monarchist forces, the democrats and the Maoists.
• In 2002, the king abolished the parliament and dismissed the government,
•  thus ending even the limited democracy that existed in Nepal.
• In April 2006, there were massive, country wide, prodemocracy protests.
• The struggling pro-democracy forces achieved their first major victory when the king was forced to restore the House of Representatives that had been dissolved in April 2002.
• The largely non-violent movement was led by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA), the Maoists and social activists draft the constitution for Nepal.

 

ETHNIC CONFLICT AND DEMOCRACY IN SRI LANKA

• Sri Lanka has retained democracy since its independence in 1948. But it faced a serious challenge, not from the military or monarchy but rather from ethnic conflict leading to the demand for secession by one of the regions.
• After its independence, politics in Sri Lanka (it was then known as Ceylon) was dominated by forces that represented the interest of the majority Sinhala community. They were hostile to a large number of Tamils who had migrated from India to Sri Lanka and settled there.
• This migration continued even after independence.
• The Sinhala nationalists thought that Sri Lanka should not give ‘concessions’ to the Tamils because Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhala people only.
•  The neglect of Tamil concerns led to militant Tamil nationalism. From 1983 onwards, the militant organisation, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
• The Sri Lankan problem involves people of Indian origin, and there is considerable pressure from the Tamil people in India to the effect that the Indian government should protect the interests of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
•  The government of India has from time to time tried to negotiate with the Sri Lankan government on the Tamil question.
•  But in 1987, the government of India for the first time got directly involved in the Sri Lankan Tamil question.
•  India signed an accord with Sri Lanka and sent troops to stabilise relations between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamils. Eventually, the Indian Army got into a fight with the LTTE.
•  The presence of Indian troops was also not liked much by the Sri Lankans.
• They saw this as an attempt by India to interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka.
• In 1989, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) pulled out of Sri Lanka without attaining its objective.
• the ravages of internal conflict, it has maintained a democratic political system.

INDIA-PAKISTAN CONFLICTS

• Soon after the partition, the two countries got embroiled in a conflict over the fate of Kashmir.
•  The Pakistani government claimed that Kashmir belonged to it. Wars between India and Pakistan in 1947-48 and 1965 failed to settle the matter.
• The 1947-48 war resulted in the division of the province into Pakistan-occupied

• Kashmir and the Indian province of Jammu and Kashmir divided by the Line of Control.
• In 1971, India won a decisive war against Pakistan but the Kashmir issue remained unsettled
• India’s conflict with Pakistan is also over strategic issues like the control of the Siachen glacier and over acquisition of arms.
•  The arms race between the two countries assumed a new character with both states acquiring nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver such arms against each other in the 1990s.
•  In 1998, India conducted nuclear explosion in Pokaran.
• Pakistan responded within a few days by carrying out nuclear tests in the Chagai Hills.
•  Since then India and Pakistan seem to have built a military relationship in which the possibility of a direct and full-scale war has declined.

But both the governments continue to be suspicious of each other. The Indian government has blamed the Pakistan government for using a strategy of low-key violence by helping the Kashmiri militants with arms, training, money and protection to carry out terrorist strikes against India.

 

• India and Pakistan also have had problems over the sharing of river waters.
• Until 1960, they were locked in a fierce argument over the use of the rivers of the Indus basin.
•  Eventually, in 1960, with the help of the World Bank, India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty which has survived to this day in spite of various military conflicts in which the two countries have been involved.
• There are still some minor differences about the interpretation of the Indus Waters Treaty and the use of the river waters.
•  The two countries are not in agreement over the demarcation line in Sir Creek in the Rann of Kutch.
• The dispute seems minor, but there is an underlying worry that how the dispute is settled may have an impact on the control of sea resources in the area adjoining Sir Creek.
•  India and Pakistan are holding negotiations on all these issues.

INDIA AND ITS OTHER NEIGHBOURS

• The governments of India and Bangladesh have had differences over several issues including the sharing of the Ganga and Bryhahmaputra river waters.
• unhappy with Bangladesh’s denial of illegal immigration to India, its support for anti-Indian Islamic fundamentalist groups, Bangladesh’s refusal to allow Indian troops to move through its territory to northeastern India, and its decision not to export natural gas to India or allow Myanmar to do so through Bangladeshi territory
• Nepal and India enjoy a very special relationship that has very few parallels in the world. A treaty between the two countries allows the citizens of the two countries to travel to and work in the other country without visas and passports.
• Despite this special relationship, the governments of the two countries have had traderelated disputes in the past. The Indian 5government has often expressed displeasure at the warm relationship between Nepal and China and at the Nepal government’s inaction against antiIndian elements
• The difficulties in the relationship between the governments of India and Sri Lanka are mostly over ethnic conflict in the island nation. Indian leaders and citizens find it impossible to remain neutral when Tamils are politically unhappy and are being killed. After the military intervention in 1987, the Indian government now prefers a policy of disengagement vis-à-vis Sri Lanka’s internal troubles. India signed a free trade agreement with Sri Lanka, which strengthened relations between two countries. India’s help in post-tsunami reconstruction in Sri Lanka has also brought the two countries closer
• the Maldives remain warm and cordial. In November 1988, when some Tamil mercenaries from Sri Lanka attacked the Maldives, the Indian air force and navy reacted quickly to the Maldives’ request to help stop the invasion. India has also contributed towards the island’s economic development, tourism and fisheries.